


Chilled

by Philpott397



Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Action/Adventure, Blood and Injury, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Eventual Romance, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-11
Updated: 2019-11-14
Packaged: 2021-01-27 19:54:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 14,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21397753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Philpott397/pseuds/Philpott397
Summary: He’s so cold, so cold.He feels so claustrophobic and so goddamn cold.  It’s like someone shoved him in an icebox and turned down the temperature.  There’s muffled voices all around him and a little bit of warmth but neither can pierce the shell around him.  There’s an uptick of a sound near his head and a rush of voices, he doesn’t feel good.  There’s a pressure in his chest that he can’t get away from and a sudden rush of blood chilling fear.He can’t wake up, can’t wake up.He feels so trapped, so tense likes he’s about to implode on himself.  There’s more voices around him and something akin to pain radiating from his chest to replace the overwhelming pressure.  He can’t move, it’s like he’s trapped in his own body.  The fear and anxiety rise exponentially along with the noise around him.  There’s other voices now, away from him, he thinks he hears screaming.  Sara?Alternate canon where Scott and Sara wake up at the same time and have to face the horrors of Andromeda together.  Alternating points of view, but mostly Scott.  Enjoy
Relationships: Cora Harper/Male Ryder | Scott, Female Ryder | Sara/Reyes Vidal
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	1. The Thaw

Sara takes a breath before she rises from the exam bed in the med bay. Her body is still a little chilled from just waking up from cryo, but it’s starting to come back online especially with the coffee Dr. T’Perro had pressed into her hands. Even though the call comes over the intercom for the pathfinder team to assemble on the bridge, she instead responds to Dr. Carlyle who had invited her to stay and watch her brother be brought out of stasis.

Just as the technician starts to key in the code to open the pod, the heating process already underway, a shudder hits the ship. She gets her barring back after Cora resets the gravitation, but before she can respond there’s a commotion in front of her. A team of technicians and both Dr. Carlyle and T’Perro are standing around her brother’s pod. One of the technicians is desperately activating the emergency release handles while another pulls on the slightly dented door.

She joins in the effort to pull the door lose, heart jumping into her throat as she hears a slight pounding from inside the pod. When the door does come off, her brother’s panicked eyes meet hers but he doesn’t make a move to get out of the pod. He’s shivering violently and there are health alarms going off from the internal sensors of the machine. His eyes are shooting in every direction, but his skin is as pale as his uniform and sweat is starting to bead on his forehead. But there’s a bit of color coming back, a slight smirk to his sister as the bustle of activity around them increases. The doctors wasting no time in directing nurses to pull him out and carry him to one of the beds near to the cryo pod chamber.

It’s then that her brother starts to come out of his momentary moment of stability. Vital alarms blare as soon as they set him on the bed, his body going limp and color draining from his face as his body starts to go into shock. There’s a rush to set up the bed to support stabilizing his internal body temperature which was stuck at a dangerously low level from not being brought out of stasis correctly. Sara steps in between the doctors and nurses to cup her brother’s shaking head and kneel down over his trembling form.

“Scotty, come on little brother its ok. Just take a few deep breaths and relax for us. Come on Scott.” She whispers loud enough for him to hear it without it being too forceful or panicked herself.

Her heart beats rapidly as he reaches out a shaking hand to grip one of her forearms as she holds his head. His hand is frighteningly chilled, but he’s clinging onto her arm for some sort of stability. So she moves one of her opposite hand from his cheek to lay over his hand, hoping to give him some comforting warmth as the nurses and doctors work around them. 

“Temperature 89 degrees.” A nurse reports, another moving to strip off the man’s clothes before throwing a thick vital stabilization blanket on top of his shivering body. 

The bed and blanket work in perfect sync to provide a measured amount of heat to the man, Dr. T’Perro carefully tracking the slight rise in temperature and stabilization of the young man. The threat of going into a life threatening case of shock recedes slowly with the heat and his sister’s constant reassuring words. He’s barely awake, shivering and doing his best to curl into the blanket and sources of warmth. Eyes slightly glassy as he opens and closes them, his hand slipping from her arm to curl against his chest as he shivers.

“He’s stabilizing, nurse Jenkins can you check what stage of the cryo process the pod was damaged precisely?” Dr. Carlyle asks, the nurse nodding and hurrying back to the man’s damaged pod.

“Is he going to be ok?” Sara asks, gently tucking a corner of the warm blanket around his back from where he had curled into a loose ball.

“He should yes, I believe he just needs to warm up in a sense.” The doctor explains, placing her hand on her shoulder with a comforting smile.

“Here that Scott, just give it some time to warm you up.” She says, kneeling down next to him again to brush some of his sweaty hair out of his eyes.

“Easy, for you, to say.” He stutters out, teeth chattering from the cold, but he gives her a weak smile.

They send the young woman on her way to the bridge while Dr. Carlyle leaves to start waking up other colonists. Dr. T’Perro staying to personally oversee the young man’s progress toward coming fully out of stasis. The nurse had relayed that his revival process had been interrupted at the 67% mark, meaning that his body wasn’t brought up to the safe temperature before he was awakened. She was currently monitoring the images from the scanner that was going over his torso and head every five minutes or so. Just in case he’d suffered any internal damage from half frozen tissue suddenly moving for the first time in six hundred years.

“You’re doing very well Scott.” The doctor reassures as the man groans at the ache of his body regaining feeling akin to the stinging feeling of too cold tissue warming rapidly.

“Hurts.” He mumbles, curling further into his warming blanket.

“I know, but it’ll pass soon. Can you answer some questions for me?” She asks, grabbing a datapad from the console beside the bed.

“Yeah.” He replies, his eyes staying closed in an attempt to just focus on the warm blanket above him and the bed below him.

“Ok, we’ll start easy. What’s your name and do you know where you are?” The doctor asks, glancing quickly to his temperature reading, satisfied that it was safely climbing before looking back to his scrunched up expression.

“Scott A. Ryder, and we must be in Andromeda now, on the Hyperion ark.” He says, sounding a little unsure, but not completely lost.

“That’s correct, now how are you feeling. The ark hit something and your pod malfunctioned meaning that you were woken up before you were thawed all the way in a sense. We’re warming you up now and you should be just fine after a little rest.” She explains, smiling warmly as he actually cracked open his uniquely turquoise and orange blended colored eyes to look at her.

Being a part of the human ark was a unique experience in itself, but having this experience of working with the pathfinder team right out of the gate in their new galaxy was a wonder in itself. She knew that Alec Ryder was a man of many strengths and leadership abilities, but his children fell not an inch short of that model themselves. Sara’s energy and compassion as she woke up and now her brother who looked ready to get to work if the paralyzing cold of his unworking muscles and nerves would let him.

“Not good.” He mumbles, the vital monitor beeping a warning about his higher heart rate to her.” 

“I know, just keep working through it for us ok. Take a few deep breaths and just try and relax a little.” She says softly, leaning forward to lie a hand against his forehead finding it warmer than she wanted.

“I really don’t feel good.” Scott pushes, face paling as she catches onto what’s he’s talking about.

She rushes to get a bag for him to throw up in, a shaking hand holding his chest as he coughed continually into the receptacle. Passing the bag off to a nurse, she gently wipes his mouth and offers him some water to sip. There’s a bit of blood that concerns her, but SAM isn’t throwing out any internal bleeding warnings. She makes the decision to set him up with an IV against his heavily documented fear of needles to introduce some medicine that would held him fall asleep rather than actively battle with his body and them.

“No needles.” He mumbles, the words barely recognizable as the medication starts to flow.

“Dr. T’Perro?” A tall man asks her, suited up in full armor with a helmet in his hand.

“Yes, oh your Alec Ryder correct?” She asks, getting a nod from the concerned older man as he looks past her to his son.

“Yes, is he?” Alec starts to ask before he’s cut off.

“Dad?” Scott mutters, lifting his head a fraction of an inch to look in the direction of the man.

It cuts at this father when he gets a good look at his son. Pale against the white sheets and blankets as his dazes eyes search out him. 

“We’re starting to give him some medication to help him lapse into sleep. The revival process was interrupted and he’s in too much danger of panicking and going into shock if he’s awake right now. He should be awake for a few more minutes if you want to talk to him before you go out.” She explains, walking over to the other doctor so that the two could have some time with one another.

Alec sets his helmet down on the ground as he knees next to his son’s bed. Even in his armor he can feel the heat radiating from the medical device as it warms up his son’s body in highly measured increments. The boy, no young man himself is glassy eyed with a slight fever and the fight his body is going through right now. It hurts to leave him behind, after how starry eyed he had been during all of his talk of exploration. How much his sister had been ribbing him with promises to race each other to be the first at this and that before they had left. 

“I know you don’t feel good right now Scott, but just focus on resting and getting better. There’ll be plenty of trouble for you to get in to after that I promise.” He whispers, taking off his glove to gently run his fingers through his son’s feathery hair, the comforting gesture working its magic when he was an infant and now just the same.

“I’m gonna lose the bet.” Scott groans, smiling at his father through the growing haze of medication.

“Your sister told me, she also said you’ll just have to go double or nothing on the highest mountain. I love you Scott, I know I haven’t been the best dad in a while, but I think this place is going to be good for all three of us.” He says, gently kissing the young man’s forehead as the medication finally took its full hold.

“Love you too, dad.” The young man whispers as his father takes his leave.

_He’s so cold, so cold._

_He feels so claustrophobic and so goddamn cold. It’s like someone shoved him in an icebox and turned down the temperature. There’s muffled voices all around him and a little bit of warmth but neither can pierce the shell around him. There’s an uptick of a sound near his head and a rush of voices, he doesn’t feel good. There’s a pressure in his chest that he can’t get away from and a sudden rush of blood chilling fear. _

_He can’t wake up, can’t wake up._

_He feels so trapped, so tense likes he’s about to implode on himself. There’s more voices around him and something akin to pain radiating from his chest to replace the overwhelming pressure. He can’t move, it’s like he’s trapped in his own body. The fear and anxiety rise exponentially along with the noise around him. There’s other voices now, away from him, he thinks he hears screaming. Sara?_

“Harry focus on Sara I’ve got Scott.” Lexi orders, looking up at the chaotic med bay as medical personal rush to the wounded from the pathfinder’s mission to the surface of habitat seven.

The old man nods with and rushes over to the other twin while other nurses work on the other members of the pathfinder team that had come back injured. Scott’s health had started to slide downhill after a little over an hour of receiving the medication that would have hopefully stabilized him. Unfortunately his body had started to struggle with warming up past 94 degrees despite the help of the warming bed and blanket surrounding him. 

It had culminated when he started going into a form of cardiac distress due to shock that had been present in his body from his first moments in the new galaxy. Blood had started leaking out of the side of his mouth and it sent the team quickly into action. A nurse was in the middle of trying to introduce a stimulant to pull the young man out of sleep in order to help calm him down while she and a few other doctors worked on discovering what was causing his body to reject warming up and destabilize like this.

Scott wakes up and starts screaming from how much pain he’s in, how much pressure is in his chest right now. The team can’t do much to control it without knowing where its coming from and the help SAM would be isn’t there because he’s busy integrating with Sara to save her life. Lexi works fast and finally comes across the scan she needs of his chest. There’s a buildup of fluid in the young man’s lungs causing them to scrape against his ribs and compress his heart. 

She wastes little time in inserting a large gauge needle into his chest insert a drainage tube into each lung and his abdominal cavity. The young man’s panic recedes like a switch has been flipped. Weak whimpers escaping his trembling lips as he looks around in his dazed state. Lexi methodically places bandages around the tubes to control the risk of infection and further panic from the man if he looks down. Tucking the blanket back around his shoulders, she elevates the bed to allow him to breathe easier. 

“I’m sorry Scott, I hope that feels better.” She says after waving the other medical professionals over to other patients.

“I got, scared, sorry.” He mumbles, coughing slightly at the irritation screaming had done to his throat.

“Don’t apologize, it was well within what you were experiencing to panic. I can’t imagine what that felt like.” She explains, grabbing a soft cloth from the storage cabinet to wipe his sweaty forehead.

He nods weakly, accepting a spill proof cup of water to sip incrementally as she checks over his vitals again. She figures he’ll pass out soon from the abuse his body has taken, but there’s still a glint of panic deep in his eyes whenever he closes them for more than a few seconds. It catches her attention the fifth time it happens when his head starts to nod toward his chest. Dropping his cup with a sharp intake of breath and a momentary period where he can’t stop shaking.

“What’s the matter Scott?” The doctor asks, glances at the slight uptick of his heart rate with concern.

“I don’t wanna, fall asleep.” He whispers, looking guilty as a nurse hands him back his cup after cleaning where it had hit the ground.

“Hey now, we’ve got everything figured out and we’re not going to give you any more sedatives. So if you start to feel unwell again, you’ll be able to wake up on your own I promise. You need to get some rest, I know you had a really bad experience, but it’ll be ok this time.” She calmly explained, taking his shaking hand in hers to rub her thumb over the back of his hand in a comforting manner.

“Ok.” He says, nodding as he takes a few calculated breaths before closing his eyes.

It doesn’t take him long to fall asleep and that isn’t surprising to her. She takes the time to make sure he really is stable for the moment before walking over to where Harry is busy rubbing his temples in frustration. He tells her of what happened to the pathfinder, Sara, and the team as a whole. It shocks her that moments into the galaxy that they’d lost their pathfinder and visionary behind the project as a whole. She dreads that someone would have to break the new to Scott when he was better, especially after catching the last words the two had exchanged before he had headed off on the mission.

She busies herself with other patients as they near the Nexus, looking up as Sara walks slowly into the med bay. The young woman looks beyond exhausted both mentally and physically as her eyes land on her brother’s still form. She pads over and takes a seat in the chair she had been using next to his bed. Reaching under his blanket to take his hand in hers and just hand her head with an emotional sigh. The young woman’s lip quivering and eyes brimming with tears as she scrunches her face and just sits in his presence. 

Before she can walk over to the woman, Scott opens his eyes and smiling weakly at his sister squeezing her hand under the blanket. It’s easy to tell they’re twins from here, even past their alike facial features and expressions. Even in the critical condition he’s in, it only take moment for him to pick up on the emotions of his twin. Furling his brow in confusion as tears start to roll down her cheeks and the grip on his hand wavers.

“Sara, what’s wrong?” He asks, his voice quiet but kind to his sister.

“Dad, he, we fell from this cliff and my helmet broke. I couldn’t breathe and dad, he, he gave me his helmet and he…” She started crying, his brother getting the picture of what happened to their father.

There’s tears running down his cheeks with a stuttered sob breaking through his throat. Knowing that the medicated conversation he had with his father was in fact his last. The man he’d spent his life trying to live up to, knowing that he finally was coming around to the new start in their new galaxy. It hurt so much more than the pain he had felt when fluid was compressing in his heart. He’s opens his arms and his sister goes into them without a second thought. They mourn together until there’s a call that they’ve arrived at the Nexus.

It’s a visible reluctance that she leaves him to go meet the Nexus officials. Scott in turn seems to get a new energy about him, waving to the doctor with a determination in his eyes. She had been looking at a message Harry had sent her about wanting he to be on the pathfinder’s ship as their doctor instead of him. 

“I need to be on that ship when it leaves.” Scott says, sitting up with some difficulty.

“Let me look at you, you’ve been through a lot.” She says, gently easing the tubes from his chest much to discomfort as she found that he’d stabilized.

It doesn’t take her long to determine that he would be healthy enough to join the crew, but not nearly stable enough to be in the combat role that was planned for him on the team. She explains this carefully to the young man and he surprisingly takes it with little difficulty. It makes sense in her medical mind to approve him for the release from the medical bay just for his mental health alone. He can find some way to make himself useful during the exploration as he recovers enough to fill his originally planned role. If she said he had to stay here it would crush him and she knew that.

“C’mon, let’s get you dressed as see if you can walk.” She says, grabbing a clean white uniform from a trunk in the corner.

She gets a sense of how interrupting the stasis revival process has impacted him because he has a very limited range of motion as he struggles to put on his clothes. Stepping into help, she’s already starting to catalog what exercises she’s going to have to work him through to get his muscles back into working order. She’s greeted with more of the same as he barely gets his feet under him before his legs buckle and he goes back onto his bed with a sigh.

Its then that she remembers and he does as well that he hasn’t synced his prosthetic legs yet. He’d lost them during his time in the alliance, a blast when he was defending the relay taking them both off just above his knees. With a shaky hand, he reaches down to sync them to the attached releases on his stumps. It only takes a moment and after he tries to stand again. He takes a few cautious steps with the doctor close instead he decides to fall again.

“You feel ok?” Lexi asks, smiling as the man starts to walk normally if a little stiffly. 

“Yeah, a little dizzy and still pretty chilled but better.” He says, and she can tell he’s being genuine.

“Ok, let’s get you moving toward the ship then.” She says, smiling to Harry as she explains they she’ll be joining the pathfinder team in his stead.

They get an escort to the Tempest, they’re new ship and home for the next foreseeable future of exploration. She has to hold Scott back from rushing his steps, the heart warming and childlike excitement for the adventure ahead creeping back into this expression. He smiles apologetically and matches her careful tempo as they climb the ramp to the ship.

“Oh hello, welcome to the Tempest. You must be our doctor and you’re the other Ryder right?” A female turian asks them.

“That we are.” Scott says with a smirk.

“Well I could give you tour or just point to bunks you could set up in. I’m Vetra by the way.” She says, shaking both of their hands.

“I’m Scott. Just point me to bunk please.” Scott says, rubbing his eyes as the long walk from the Hyperion’s med bay to here catches up with him.

“Well the crew quarters is through that hallway across from the med bay, or there’s a storage room to your left there with a few extra mattresses that you could procure before other’s get here.” She says, and boy does he already have a favorite crew member.

“Private room it is.” He says, separating form the doctor to get started on arranging his new room.

“I thought you’d say that, you’re personal effects box is already in there.” She says, smirking as he basically squeaks with happiness as the doctor shakes her head with a smile.

“Scott, make sure you check in with me if you start to feel unwell again. I’m talking any pressure in your chest.” She warns, getting a nod from the young man as he disappearing into the storage room.

Sara actually chuckles when she sees him later after getting them underway to Eos for their mission. Busy cleaning doing maintenance one of his prosthetic legs to repair some damage done to the systems from the cryo process and six hundred years without looking at them once. He smiles up at her from where’s he’s sitting on his bed, leaned up against some pillows to take some strain off his tired body. She drags over a stool that he had shoved near his ‘desk’ or a large crate. There’s an old couch in the room, but she files that off for a later question.

“Nice digs little bro, oh how the crew will be talking about Ryder’s getting all the nice stuff.” She jokes, snickering as she catches sight of his ship collection on a shelf next to his bed, a collection he had prodded their dad every day about, eventually getting permission to have an extra personal effects crate to put them all in.

“Technically Vetra gave me it, and she also has a big room. First come first serve.” He jokes back, and the tension falls from her shoulders for the first time since getting back from the first mission, just happy to see her brother looking healthier and acting like himself.

“Likely story, how you feeling?” She asks carefully, knowing she would get the sigh he gives him.

She knows firsthand how hard her brother takes being kept from doing things because he was under medical restrictions. It had taken him nearly a year to fully recover from the explosion at the relay and his doctors had enlisted her help to get him to abide by his recovery procedures. He’d pushed back at every limit until he got exhausted or their mother gave him her trademark doctor look. It was one of the best memories she had before she passed. 

Scott after he’d already had his physically therapy for the day, pain evident on his face from trying to walk on new prosthetics when he wasn’t supposed to outside of that PT yet. Reaching the threshold of the kitchen only to get the look from their mother. She’d remembered laughing until she cried at the way her brother head sunk his head like a turtle trying to hide in its shell before shuffling over to grab his wheelchair and sit heavily in it. Timidly asking his mother if he could grab a soda before dinner whilst staring at the floor to avoid the woman’s unimpressed stare.

“Fine, really tired, but I’m doing better.” He explains, furling his brow at an especially difficult piece of wiring.

“I saw Lexi put some medical restrictions on you, like not joining missions right away. Are you ok with that?” She asks, reading him carefully as he works on his leg.

“Yeah, as long I get to be here and not in that med bay on the ark I’m happy. I’ll get better in time and then I can go out.” He replies, closing the casing on his leg to set it on the ground next to his other one.

“You come pretty far little bro, I was expecting a fight.” Sara jokes, surprised to get a chuckle from her brother as he moves to lie down on his small collection of pillows he managed to find in the storage room.

“I can realize when I’m not well enough, especially in a situation like we’re in. You can’t have liabilities.” Scott says, a little dejected but the might have been since his head was starting to drop in promise of another nap coming soon.

“You’re not a liability, I’m sure you’ll be back up and running within a week. Get some rest.” She says, pulling his blanket over him before turning down the lights and taking her leave.

He wakes back up a little bit after they’ve made it to Eos. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he sit up in bed and takes a moment to let the lingering dizziness and stiffness of his body recede somewhat before he reaches down to grab his prosthetics. Syncing them up, he gets to his feet and take some practice steps before making his way out of his room. Heading up to the meeting room, he’s met with the jaw dropping expanse of the first planet he’s seen in their new home.

**I can pull up your sister’s progress on the meeting room console if you wish Ryder.**

SAM’s voice jolts him a little, but he recognizes it from the time he’d sat in his father’s lab back on Earth. Nodding to the air, he looks toward the center console in the room and sees a map of the landscape of the planet. Leaning on the console he watches SAM materialize some brief descriptions of the remnant spires, the lake, the nomad which he was now dying to drive, and finally the vault his sister was currently in. He spends the next hour looking at pictures his sister’s helmet picked up from the terrain, smiling as he swiped through the landscape. 

He’s broken out of his exploring by the ship taking off to the north. They land about the same time as the shuttles from the Nexus. He’s wastes little time getting his armor on and heading outside with Lexi’s clear instructions not to exert himself. His sister runs up and hugs him before walking with him over to the small lake in their first outpost. Just feel the sandy dirt moving under his boots and feeling the wind around him is enough to lift his mood.

“This is awesome, put that on the record SAM.” He says smirking as his sister puts her hands on her knees from how hard she’s laughing.

**Noted, I will forward your sentiment to the historical exploration offices on the Nexus.**

“Oh my god, you already taught SAM sarcasm.” Scott deadpans, tilting his head back in a dramatic sigh.

“He picked it up himself, I’m glad you here Scott.” She says, looking away from the water to the outpost currently being built.

“You too Sara, I get to go on the next mission right?” He asks, smiling as she looks like she’s considering it.

“We’ll see how you feel, c’mon let’s go help a little.” Sara says, dragging him along.

They get a few new crew members added to the ship after Eos. An Asari named Peebee and a Krogan named Drack. He immediately gravitates toward the krogan warrior, despite the continued comment on his quote “amazing human ass” unquote from the Asari to get his attention. He finds himself alone with the old man that next evening when most of the other members of the crew were sleeping on their way to the place the vault had shown them.

“What are you doing up kid?” The old warrior asks, looking up from where he was stirring his own dinner after feeding the rest of them.

“I get hungry from my biotics, don’t mind me.” He says, grabbing a bag of rations to heat up before the krogan stops him.

“Just have some of mine, it’s almost done and I made too much.” Drack says, grabbing an extra bowl from the cupboard.

“Thanks Drack, what is it?” He asks, taking a seat at the galley table like an eager kid.

“Ahdi stew, it’s not bad. You’re the pathfinder’s brother right?” He asks, turning the heat down for it boil for a few minutes as he turns around and leans against the counter to give his full attention to the young human.

“Yeah, my name’s Scott though. You know if you’d rather call me that instead of the pathfinder’s brother, or the other Ryder, or that weird crewmember that doesn’t do anything yet.” Scott says, frowning at how dejected he sounds.

They’d spent a few days on the Nexus before starting their journey toward the mystery waypoint. During that time he gotten those three responses to learning who he was over and over until he had to excuse himself from where the team had been celebrating at the Vortex. He’d locked himself in his room on the Tempest and cried for close to an hour, silently wishing he was back in his cryo pod not having to live this handicapped life because he still after nearly a week felt like he was about to fall over if he moved to sharply.

The krogan doesn’t respond right away, turning around to turn off the heat on the stove and set the pot onto a cold burner. Pouring the two servings before setting one in front of the young man with a fork and spoon. Setting his own down before grabbing a glass of water for the both of them. Sitting down with a heavy thump before regarding the saddened young man in front of him. His green reptilian eyes appraising the human in front of him.

He’d heard of the young man from the pathfinder, but had rarely seen him other than quick conversations where the human stuttered in his presence and excused himself quickly. He knew the human was supposed to be one of the fighters on the ship, but he’d yet to see him out in the field. Having a quick conversation about it with Dr. T’Perro while she was doing he check up on him had confirmed why. The human had been injured coming out of cryo, but he wasn’t left behind on the line of thinking he would be an asset on the ship while he healed. But looking around, the young human seemed to falter in finding that purpose and mostly remained off to the side cleaning their weapons.

Something pulls under his chest piece when he sees the kid though. There’s obviously an energy and want to go out into the new galaxy around them and explore and fight with his team, but it’s trapped behind this medical wall and he can empathize with that with his own injuries. Seeing the young human struggle through workouts in the wee hours of the morning with his prosthetics uncovered just in his shorts and Lexi sitting not a few feet away working and watching him at the same time just in case. It’s familiar to him, and he wants to help the kid like he hasn’t others. Maybe his is getting old.

“You ok kid?” Drack asks after taking a bite of his stew. 

“Yeah, sorry for that. I just, I want to be better already. Not cheated out of everything I hoped for and can see happening in front of me.” Scott explains, wiping at his eyes as he eats the amazing food in front of him.

“I can understand that, back on Tuchanka I got blown up and thought my life was over as a warrior but I got better and you can too kid.” Drack tries, but only succeeds in getting a sullen nod. 

“I got blown up too and it took me a year to get better, this is a little damn freezer burn that I can’t get over and I hate it.” He sneers, immediately deflates when he realizes how much he sounds like an asshole to the man just trying to help him. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s ok kid, get it out.” The old warrior challenges with a smirk as he digs through his meal.

Scott blinks at the man, normally Lexi or his sister would have just reassured him he would be fine and would heal in time. No one had given him the time to just get out his frustrations and just talk about what he was feeling. It felt liberating just to have the option and the way Drack was looking at him expecting the anger from the young man in the first place.

“Well, I just have no purpose here I’m worthless.” He starts to say before completely breaking down, his emotions overwhelming him as he presses as hand to his eyes as he starts to hiccup and cry, hating himself the whole time for doing it in front of someone like Drack.

There’s a heavy grunt as a boney arm makes its way around his shoulders and pulls him close. He goes into the warrior’s hold on reflex from how his mother had comforted him when he was younger and after the relay. Hand clutching the man’s chest piece as he sobbed, feeling comforted as the krogan just held and rocked him gently like a small clutch. It was then that another feeling of loss hit him square in the chest, the loss of his father and seeing a father like mentor in Drack. It just hurt him more.

“Shh kid, just let it out. You’ve been through a lot for a squishy human.” The old warrior says uncharacteristically softly.

His heart sank in a way he thought was long gone in his cold way of life as a krogan elder as he held the kid. Feeling the same when he had first seen his granddaughter fighting for her life as a clutch. There was an old krogan war story on familial bonding to the weaker children of the Nakmor clan. A bond forming between a strong warrior and one that would become strong if given a helping hand. He’d felt that bond slip into place when he’d found her, and now another one was forming in his chest for this young human and it ignited a new purpose in his old bones.

“I didn’t think krogan’s were this nice.” Scott mumbles, wiping his eyes and sniffling as he calmed down.

“You’re a special case kid, now sit up and listen to me for a minute.” He said, getting the young human to sit up and try and make himself look presentable.

“Ok.” He says, reaching over to take a sip of his water.

“You’re not worthless let’s get that straight. But you don’t have a purpose right now, there’s no need for someone that slinks around the ship and cleans our guns. You need to find a purpose sooner rather than later. Kid, you’ll be ok with time, but you also need time to work through some of these emotions you have.” The old warrior explains, patting the human’s back.

“Thanks Drack.” Scott says, taking a deep breath before laughing and shaking his head. “You’re a better therapist than Lexi.”

“Don’t let her hear that.” The old man says, sliding back over to dig into what’s left in his bowl.

He nods, finishing the rest of his bowl before yawning. Thanking the krogan for the mean and the talk, he slowly makes his way back to his room. Lying down and immediately falling asleep. He wakes up the next morning with a new sense of energy despite the lingering stiffness in his joints and slight ache in his chest. Lexi is still there when he takes himself through his morning workout, but she seems to not look up at him as much.

In the middle of shaving his overgrown stubble after his shower, he feels the ship lurch to a stop as the lights in the bathroom go out. He manages to make his way to the bridge to stare at the looming armada that has them trapped against the scourge. Kallo manages to get them out and to the mystery planet they were tracking. He stands in awe as the gorgeous world comes into view, completely ignoring the quip Peebee makes at the shaving cream still on his face.

He cleans up in record time and is dressed in his cleanest initiative uniform by the time they land on the new world. Waiting with a bounce in his step as his sister comes down from the bridge and give him a curious look despite the stress apparent on her shoulders from having to make first contact. Her curiosity weans to shaking her head when she finally realizes what he wants to do.

“No.” She says simply reaching for the door controls as he bats her hands away.

“Please let me come with you, you can’t just go alone. Plus you forget that I trained in interspecies relations back at the academy. I know how to move through these interactions to avoid problems.” He basically begs, knowing that if he didn’t try now he wouldn’t have another opportunity to prove himself a valued member of the team.

“Scott, I can’t I’m sorry. Stay here.” She says, stepping out of the ship and leaving her completely devastated brother behind. 


	2. Growing Warmth

He looks at the unimpressed crew behind him and awkwardly shuffles into his room waving off Lexi and Drack. Sitting on his bed, he just feels numb and so completely worthless. He doesn’t move for several hours, just staring at the metal door in front of him blankly even as his sister calls the pathfinder team to the meeting room. He’s not part of the team so he doesn’t go, he barely moves for the next hour after than even as he feels the ship lurch into slip space to bring them somewhere else new. It’s a few minutes after that when a knock comes on his door. He shifts his blank, emotionless stare to the floor as the door opens and closes, the other side of his mattress sinking as a weight settles on it.

“Talk to me please.” His sister says, one hand making its way onto his shoulder.

“You couldn’t just let me come, that’s one of the only things I can do outside of fight is talk to officials like this. I might as well have just stayed died if this is the life I get to look forward to.” He says, not feeling any emotion as his sister is stunned into silence.

“Scott, please don’t think that way, should I get Lexi?” She asks, panicked at what he just admitted, internally fearful of leaving him by himself if this was the state he would be in.

“No, she can’t help.” He mutters, turning away from her to take off his prosthetics and toss them to the side before lying in bed to face the wall away from her because of course he feels tired after doing absolutely nothing, passing out not long after.

_“Scott for god’s sake get off your feet before I strap you in that wheelchair.” His father says sternly._

_He’s standing in place leaning against the counter near the microwave as his leftovers from dinner heat up. It’s late night, maybe early morning at this point and his biotic hunger had gotten him out of bed. He hadn’t really had been able to sleep anyway from the constant ache of his healing stumps and he might have been making it worse by walking on them for a little longer each day than he was supposed to. But he was so restless if he just stayed in his bed, on the couch, or tried to maneuver their apartment in his wheelchair he would go nuts. _

_“I didn’t want to wake mom up.” He says, his chest hurting with emotion as he thought of his own mother suffering like she was with the disease she got researching biotics like her children. _

_“I’m sure you potentially hurting yourself is worth avoiding even if you make a little noise.” His father replies, deflating a little as he pulls up a chair for his son to sit in._

_He sits in the offered chair, sighing as the painful pressure comes off his prosthetics. His father grabs his heated meal before the machine can make a noise and sets it on the table for him. The man looks between his bedroom and his son a few times before sitting at the table. They’d been short with each other lately, with the stress of his injury and his work on SAM it hadn’t been an easy time. Especially since their only discussion on the whole getting them kicked out of the alliance had only happened with family splitting yelling that his mother had put an end to right away._

_“Scott, I know you’re chomping at the bit to get to this expectation you have of being at one hundred percent again, but I really think you need to come to turns with reality.” His father says, suddenly making him lose his appetite all together and feel sick to his stomach._

_“Shut up.” Scott says, leaning back in his chair with a frown._

_“No, you’re not ok son. You’re hurting and…” His father tries before Scott slams his hand on the table with tears in his eyes._

_“You don’t care, stop acting like it when you spend days in that lab barely talking to any of us.” Scott yells, standing up and stomping around the kitchen._

_“Scott calm down.” His father tries._

_“I can’t anymore, I’m a goddamn cripple with no future thanks to you, and it fucking hurts so much, I…” Scott trails off and pales as he catches sight of his mother standing in the threshold of the kitchen in her pajamas._

_An intense feeling of guilt overwhelms him as he starts to blubber apologies to his mother for waking her up. But all he gets is a compassionate smile and a gentle hand leading him to the couch in the living room to sit down. She sits down next to him and lets him comes easily into her motherly embrace. He’s so tired, but he can’t sleep with the pain and the constant bubble of emotions threatening to burst anytime someone comments on his injuries and his mother knows it better than he does._

_“Don’t feel bad about waking me up, I can tell you’re hurting.” She whispers, kissing his forehead as she rubs her hand up and down his trembling back._

_“I hate feeling this way.” He says, burying his head in her chest._

_“I know Scotty, but you have to find a better way to cope than letting your temper get the best of you. This isn’t healthy for you and it’s going to get you in trouble outside this apartment.” She explains, looking up to her husband as he moves to stand over the couch with a guilty expression of his own._

_“Scott, do you want me to get you some of your pain meds for the night?” His father asks, gently rubbing the young man’s shoulder._

_“No, I don’t want them.” He says his anger simmering below the surface with his father._

_It takes a silent conversation between his mother and father before the latter retreats to the other couch in the room to wait. His mother rubs his back rhythmically as he starts to relax like the many times they had ended up in this same situation over the past few weeks. He lulls off in her embrace despite the throbbing in his legs. His father comes back over to take off his prosthetics and set them off to the side by the foot of the couch. And as soon as his mother nods that he’s fallen deeper into sleep to the point that he’s starting to snore lightly, his father moves forward to pick his son up in his arms. Cradling the boy as he would when he was younger to carry him back to his bed._

_“Don’t cover him up right away hon.” Ellen says, disappearing into the bathroom._

_Alec gently sets his son down on his new bed they’d bought so he’d have one similar to the one that had made his life easier in the hospital. It did its job well but it couldn’t control the mental issues that come from the pain and the subsequent pain that this causes physically. It hurts to see him this way, but he does know that he’s a influence in that and he needs to correct that track before he’ll never have a relationship with his son._

_“He still out?” She asks as she comes in with a cloth and some of the pain reliving cream she had talked her son’s doctor into finally prescribing rather than the pills that made him unbearably sick before it fully kicked in._

_“Yeah, I’m sorry hon I didn’t mean to wake you or rile him up. It’s just hard seeing this rift between us and the pain he’s in.” Alex explains gently holding his son’s stump up as Ellen put some protective gloves on._

_“You two need to just sit down and talk tomorrow when he’s fed and not in pain, it’s as simple as that. I want to see you all happy before anything happens to me.” She says, gently spreading the cream on her son’s stump before wrapping it with a protective gauze._

_“I know.” He says, gently setting down the boy’s leg before picking up the other._

_She treats his other stump and wraps it before her husband moves to cover their son with his blankets. It’s hard to see him in a way that looks akin to when he was younger and got sick or something along that line. He takes a seat on the boy’s floor as Ellen sits on the head of the bed as Scott starts to scrunch up his face and shift in bed in discomfort, it stops a little when she runs her fingers through his hair, but very little._

_It’s when he starts to whimper and groan that he steps in, sliding on the other side of his head to gently pick him up by his shoulders and hold him against his chest. The pressure of the hold immediately calms down his son in ways that weighted blankets and the advanced bed can’t. It worries them both to no end that this is the only way for him to get a good night’s sleep. No matter how exhausted he got, the discomfort and mental pain couldn’t be chased away by anything but this one strategy of just holding him so that he could actually get some rest and give his body the energy to heal._

_“I can stay with him hon.” Ellen offers, lifting the blanket to cover her son up to the shoulders._

_“No, go sleep in bed and get some rest yourself. I can stay with him.” He says, shooing her off with a smile._

Scott wakes up with a chill running down his spine as he digests the memory. He’d been somewhat awake when his parents had been talking that whole time and he remembers his father’s arms holding him tight and the calmness that had come over himself to actually rest that night. He feels just as weak now as he did then. Staring up at the ceiling not with his legs aching anymore, well not as much. But instead with the lingering stiffness and ever present chill in his body as he sits up and rubs his eyes.

He misses his mother so much at times like these, she knew him best. Better than his father and better than his sister. She alone had the power to calm his temper and bring him back from the brink of despair. Losing her had hit him many times in the past, but in the pit of despair he was sitting at the bottom of now, he just wanted his mom here with him. Tears running down his cheeks as he reaches over and puts on his legs. Smiling slightly at the etching his mother had forcibly put there after one of this self-despair rants one day. _Love you Scott, mom._

Walking out of his room takes a monumental effort, looking around to see if there are any others around at the early hour. He makes his way to the kitchen to grab a quick snack for breakfast before walking back to the engineering bay to get warmed up for his morning workout. Lexi isn’t there this morning as he moves through the workout and he takes the opportunity to increase the difficulty to actually get him sweating and working for the first time in weeks. Its starts to hurt toward the end, and he’s a little dizzy but not debilitated as he finishes up.

Taking a shower, he was going to make his way back to his room, but he finds himself being drawn to the meeting room. As he gets there, he hits with the wide expanse of a snowy terrain. Swallowing against the anxious lump in his throat, he unconsciously starts to rub his arms against an imagined chill. There’s storm raging outside and he has to make himself back up from the window to quell the rising panic settling deep in his gut. 

“Hey Scott, I wanted to see you today.” Lexi says as he’s stopped from shuffling past her on his way back to his room.

“Oh, ok.” He stutters, following the doctor to the med bay.

“Are you ok, you look a little pale?” She asks, pointing him to sit down on the exam bed.

“I um, saw the snow and I think it triggered something.” He says quietly, getting a kind look from the Asari as she moves forward to place a vital monitor on his wrist that looked like a wrist brace.

“That’s understandable, you’re probably going to be more sensitive to the cold both mentally and physically for a while. You went through a traumatic event where all that pain you experienced was linked to the feeling of being chilled. Maybe once things calm down we can start slowly acclimating you to it, but for now we should probably keep you away from Voeld.” She explains, looking at the data from the monitor being fed to her datapad.

Nodding, he allows her to look over the data for a few moments. The vital monitor was able to pick up his vitals from the last week or so and give her the information. Nodding that his condition was certainly improving, she did furl her brow at some of the brain wave readings. Focusing in on those, she had him lie down while she activated the scanning mechanism to target its scan on his overactive nervous system. 

“Everything ok?” He asks, closing his eyes as light runs over his face.

“You’re getting better, but there’s some odd readings with your nerves.” She explains, eyes scanning over the information on the bed’s datapad.

“Oh, my doctors said the same thing after I got injured at the relay. Something about my hitting my head a little too hard on the back blast and some issues repairing some damage done to my spinal cord.” Scott explains, working from patch memory.

Lexi takes this information into account when the bed chimes that the deep scan has finished. She’s worried when several areas flash red with critical level damage to parts of his nervous system. Some nerves near his amputated legs that should have healed by now are not exactly dead but firing randomly in a way that must be painful to the young man in front of her. More so disturbing is the scar tissue that’s been build up in his frontal lobe permanently damaging nerves in such an important area of his brain. 

“Scott, there is some serious nerve damage here. Are you sure it was just an explosion that did this, because none of this is new enough to be from the cryo mishap?” She asks, furling her brow as she finds very little in his medical file about said incident.

“Command swept most of it under the rug because it was such a coordinated attack on the station by the raiders. I was running to one of the coolant towers because they were attacking areas that were destabilizing the station so much that it was going to blow. I managed to get the switch down to cool down the generator, but a group got in and detonated some dirty bombs. The doctor said the burns I got on my legs were laced with an acidic chemical that screwed up some of my nerve endings.” He explained, looking up at the doctor with a smile.

“What about the damage to your frontal lobe?” She continues, getting a semi-surprised look from the man as he considered the question.

“I cracked my head open pretty bad when I fell out of the tower.” He offers, sitting up and parting his still damp hair to show her the deep scar that ran from the edge of his hair line straight back of the top of his head about three inches long.

“That could explain it, do your legs bother you since your nerves send those signals randomly?” She asks, updating his file as they went.

“They used to pretty bad when they were healing. I wouldn’t be able to sleep because of how restless they would get. Um, they only really do that now if I overwork myself.” He explains, letting the doctor scan over his stumps to pinpoint the effected nerves.

“Let me ask you this, did you experience more sensitivity emotionally after it happened?” Dr. T’Perro asks carefully, knowing from the man’s psych evaluations that he had developed a sharp temper and volatile emotions.

“I guess, I know I have a temper that has gotten worse since it happened, but I also just feel like I’ve really fallen in pit emotionally since it and losing…” He trails off as a lump cuts off his throat, tears brimming in his eyes as he takes a shaky breath.

He sniffles as a gentle hand makes its way to his back, letting him just breathe for a moment to work through what he’s feeling. Losing both his parents in the matter of what was realistically a few months would be hard on any human, but one so young as him Lexi knows from her studies that its hits young humans worse mentally. And already having suffered damage to the part of his brain meant to cope with such hard emotions would only make that battle more difficult.

“I know it hurts Scott, tell me what you’re feeling.” She says quietly, glancing over to make sure the door interface is red and the windows dimmed so that the young man could have his privacy.

“It just feels like I’m beaten down but also on the edge of just exploding for no reason and I hate it. My mother was the only one that could calm me down when I felt like this and I hate that she spent some of her last months trying to fix what’s still broken in me.” He explains, clenching his fist on his knee.

“You’re feeling this way because there’s damage to your frontal lobe, a part that processes emotions in healthy way. It’s going to be harder for you to reason your way through these competing emotions. But I believe your mother started you down the right route to helping yourself create some new coping mechanisms, but you’ve piled on some more trauma here.” Lexi explains, getting a thoughtful nod from the man he relaxes slightly.

“I just, I don’t feel useful here, that feeling of be to broken to be helpful anymore.” He whispers, his voice cracking as emotion threatens to overwhelm him.

“It’s a big new galaxy Scott, if it takes you a little longer to find your place that’s alright. You’re getting better, so it won’t be long until you’ll be allowed on combat missions. Just use this time to help yourself work through everything and prepare for that eventual role. In the meantime feel free to drop by and talk, or talk with some of the others.” She offers, lying a comforting hand on the young human’s shoulder.

Nodding, he allows the doctor to finish up her physical of him before taking his leave. As the med bay door closes behind him he looks down the hallway to his sister’s quarters and in the other direction to his safe room. He’d heard her check in with her team from Voeld a few hours ago to Lexi, taking a break before they would go after the Moshae to rescue her. Steeling himself, he takes a deep breath before turning away from that direction and walking toward his sister’s room. His fist hovers over the door for a few moments before he actually knocks, immediately getting a muffled call to enter. Stepping inside and letting the door close behind him, he looks around and finds his sister lounging on her couch looking over some data pads. She smiles at him warmly despite the tension in the room as he pads over and sits in the empty space by her feet.

“Look Sara, I’m sorry for putting you on the spot earlier. I just don’t feel like I have a place on the ship yet.” He admits, rubbing his hands together as he looks out her window at the breathtaking view.

“Don’t apologize Scott, you haven’t exactly had the easiest time here and I should have helped you more. There’s just been so much to do and there’s so many personalities to learn on this ship. I’m sorry Scott, you don’t deserve this.” She says, setting aside her data pads to sit up next to him.

He nods and digests her words carefully. Lexi had taken him through nearly an hour of coping mechanisms to start practicing to control his temper and limit his emotion taking over uncontrolled. Taking a deep breaths he slumps back against the couch and rubs his temples at the effort it takes to control become emotional.

“Thank Sara, I appreciate it. And I know you’re being expected to do so much, we’ve both been through too much. Is there any way I can help you out?” He asks, leaning against her as she threads her arm around his shoulders.

“Just sit here and distract me from this shit, my awesome little brother.” She teases, setting her head on his shoulder to close her eyes with a deep sigh.

“Uh let’s see, oh I got one. You remember that weekend before we went to the beach with mom, when dad and you decided to go off and hike in the mountains?” He asks after searching his memory for a few moments.

“Yeah, we almost got lost and dad screamed when he saw a snake.” She chuckled, dragging a blanket off the back of the couch as the cold ships temperature starts to make her brother shiver a little.

“Well, mom decided that she wanted to make her famous oatmeal cookies with me and I was ecstatic because I basically almost got fat on those during primary school. So we start to make them and mom makes me sit on a stool the whole time to take the strain off my legs, she’s goes are far as to put my prosthetics over in the corner near the shoes. Turns out it was all part of her plan because as the cookies were cooking she tossed a little flour at me and I could really reciprocate because I was stuck in one place. When you two called and asked if mom was alright because she was breathing heavily it was because I was covered in flour and she was laughing her ass off hunched over the counter.” Scott explained, getting a snort and a burst of laughter from his sister.

“I remember that, dad was so worried when we were driving back. And then we got into the house mom blamed the smell on a candle and I believed her.” Sara reminisced, smirking as he chuckled.

“We ate the pan of cookies and cleaned up before you two got back.” He added, getting a slap to his thigh.

“Dad was so suspicious that whole night, he wouldn’t even go to the lab.” She said, laughing at the memory without the usual sadness permeating her usual memories of their parents.

He smiles at the memory too, only remembering the good for once as he just enjoys the moment with his twin. It’s a nice change of pace from the shit show that this galaxy has been and he’s grateful to Lexi, Drack, and his sister for helping him to start climbing out of that slump he was stuck in since his cryo pod malfunctioned thanks to the scourge interfering.

“Thanks bro, I’m glad you’re here.” Sara says quietly, glancing up at his content smile.

“You two sis.” He replies just as softly as they just stare at the endless expanse of Voeld beyond the ship.

“Lexi forwarded me something about you being sensitive to the cold now, we’ll have to subvert that somehow so we can have an Andromeda snow ball fight.” She says, poking him in the side as he snorts.

“If that’s Lexi’s approach to getting me acclimated to the cold again I’m going to blame you for any fallout.” He says, shaking his head as she snickers. 

“I’ll take that chance, listen Lexi also sent along a message that she would be open to you joining combat missions again.” She says carefully, getting a surprised look from her twin.

He blinks a few times before she continues. “I want you to be on the team that goes to rescue the Moshae. I know you’re experienced in these kind of missions where I’m not and frankly I need you there.” 

“Um, I would love to,” He says as he releases a sigh, “But, do you think I would be effective with the cold thing?” 

“We’ll only know if we try Scott, and I think you need to get out there and take that first step in getting back on your feet this way.” She says, smiling in a reassuring manner.

Nodding along, he talks with her for a few more hours before they she gets the call from the resistance for the mission. He suits up with Liam and Jaal who surprisingly give him welcoming comments at finally being able to be on a real mission. Stocking up on ammo and making sure his communications were synced up to SAM and his sister, he followed her out onto the planet. The cold almost makes him sprint back into the ship as it cuts through his armor’s heating sensors before they can react. 

As soon as his heater kicks up, it gets tolerable to walk toward the waiting ship and Angara team. He spends most of the ride just looking at the ship and mentally cataloguing the newness of it all. Tuning back in as they get close, he listens to his sister and the Angara commander go over the facility and what their goal is. As soon as they get into the facility it doesn’t take long for him to snap into the mindset he’d formed while in the alliance. Bringing up the rear as they storm through the facility, stomach clenching as they watch the zombie like movement of the captured Angara in the courtyard below them.

“That looks like a cult to me.” He comments, getting a tight lipped nod from Liam as his grip tightens on his weapon.

“Let’s keep moving.” Sara says, giving a blown away Jaal a pat on the shoulder to move him along as well.

He has to swallow against a gut punching nausea when he watches the process of exaltation happen in front of him in real time. As soon as their done dispatching all the enemies in the room along with the recently turned Angara, he has to turn away from Jaal as he drops to his knees in complete anguish beside the corpse. Taking off his helmet, he spits some rancid tasting bile that had come up before quickly putting it back on. He splits the room with Liam looking for other exits to the room as well as information on where the Moshae is because they need to find her giving this new information.

“Over here, I found her!” Liam yells as he sprints over, Jaal and his sister trailing close behind them. 

“SAM get this door open!” Sara shouts as Jaal pounds on the invincible glass.

**My apologies, this door is proving more difficult than the last.**

Huffing as he sees some kett leader rising up to the Angaran leader, he tossing his gun to the ground and steels his stance before concentrating on the door. He’d been gifted with an above average level of biotics as a child, often causing their parents innumerable headaches when he was little and inexperienced. But with his mother’s research and the biotic implant at the base of his neck, he could control the immense power with deadly precision. 

Focusing on the door, he starts to pull apart the seals with a slight grunt under his breathing. The kett door starts to creak and deform as it bends and comes apart. The kett leader hears the commotion and moves to grab the Moshae and take off fleeing. By the time both their feet hit the floor he has the door open enough for even Jaal to squeeze through and pursue them. Stumbling forward slightly at the effort using his biotics for the first time in Andromeda, he only takes a moment to catch his breath before grabbing his weapon from the floor and following them into the lift.

“We must have a talk about those powers later Scott.” Jaal comments, looking immensely grateful to have him on the mission right now.

“Course, let’s get this done first.” He says, smiling under his helmet as the door opens.

Their stomachs sink as the see the Moshae and that kett leader hundreds of feet away from them within a few steps of ships that could transport then anywhere. Making the split second decision, he biotic blinks across the tens of enemy soldiers and crashes into the pair before they can even near the ship. Lifting the Moshae with his biotics and setting her down behind a protective set of crates, he throws up a shield while staring down the kett leader daring them to come at him. 

The fight doesn’t last long against their effective team, and he drops his shield as they approach him. He doesn’t miss the kett leader getting to their feet behind them and immediately throws his shield back up as Liam and Jaal aim their guns at their head. It doesn’t take the leader long to talk before Jaal puts a round through their skull. He’s able to drop his shield again and bend down to help the stunned Moshae to her uneasy feet.

“Who are, Jaal?” She asks, obviously dazed and abused from her time in the facility.

“Yes Moshae, we’re getting you out of here.” Jaal says as SAM pipes up.

**Pathfinder, I have the signal to blow the facility.**

“No, we must get all of our people out first.” Jaal urges as the woman in Scott’s arms gather’s a new energy.

“No, this place must be destroyed.” She said, the effort of it causing her to slump again.

They argue back and forth for a few minutes and he can tell his sister is struggling with the fact that she’s going to have to make the decision. 

“SAM, is there a way you can route the signal to my omni tool?” He asks, effectively cutting off their voices.

**Yes, I can. The blast signal radius will be severely decreased however.**

“Do it, Jaal have the resistance start pulling everyone out. Sara, get the Moshae to safety and I’ll make sure everyone gets out and that we destroy the facility.” He explains, passing the weak woman to Liam.

“Scott, be careful, please.” Sara says, giving him a grateful smile.

“I’ll do my best, get going.” He says, taking off down a hallway SAM painted on his HUD to help pull Angara out of the pods.

Its takes them nearly an hour to evacuate everyone from the facility. As soon as SAM oks that fact, he gets on an Angara ship as they lift off from the facility docks with wounded prisoners in tow. He signals the ship pilot to fly as fast as they can after he hits the detonation signal to the tower. Immediately afterward he throws up his biotic shield to block the ship from taking any damage from the shock wave and debris flying from the facility. The Angara watch in astonishment as he manages to hold the damage wave back, two soldiers rushing to hold him up as the effort starts to become too much for him to handle. He’s lucky that the worst of the explosion is done by the time he has to drop the barrier, breathing heavily as black spots enter his vision knowing that he overdid it.

Blinking he finds himself in the Tempest med bay staring at the sterile white ceiling. He can distantly feel the IV in his arm as he tries to blink the blurriness out of his vision. It isn’t long before he starts to shift in bed, getting a feel for his body again as he works his fingers and arms. Steps near his bed as he makes noise under the thin blanket covering him. Lexi’s smile greets him as she comes into view, and he gives her a tired smirk in return.

“Should I give you a lecture on overexerting your biotics?” She asks, gently easing the needle out of his arm before covering the small puncture wound with a smear of medigel.

“No, the full body ache is lecture enough. Sorry Lexi.” He says, sitting up gingerly as his body feels like he’s gone through one of his dad’s old workouts. 

“Just don’t make it a habit, I would rather avoid having to replace your implant if you get close to burnout.” She says, keeping a gentle hand on his back as he just needs it as he gets his bearings back.

“Feeling’s mutual doc, I’m gonna sit here for a few minutes until the ship stops tilting.” He says, reaching up to pull at the collar of his shirt to loosen it slightly.

“Alright,” She says, leaving and coming back with a cup of ice chips, “I gave you a full IV bag, so it shouldn’t hit as hard. Try and get these down and when you leave make sure and drink plenty of fluids.”

Nodding, he chews through a few ice chips before he notices he’s not alone in the room. The Moshae is sitting up in her bed looking over a data pad. But looks at him with a kind smile when he notices her.

“Thank you for what you did, that was very brave.” She says, setting down the data pad to give him her full attention.

“I was nothing, I’m just glad we were able to save you and a lot of your missing people.” He says with a smile before chewing through some more ice, starting to feel the cloudy edges of his body recede.

“I disagree with discounting yourself, but that’s a debate for another time. What was that power of yours called, the one that made the shields?” She asks, alive with curiosity.

“Biotics, Asari like Dr. T’Perro have them and humans like me inherit them if they’re mothers are exposed to this element called eezo.” He explains, sipping the collected water at the bottom of the cup before setting the empty cup off the side.

“I see, I would be interested to learn more at a later time if you would like to explore my office in Aya a little.” She offered, igniting that explorer want in him.

“I’d be honored.” He says with a smile.

It takes him a few more minutes before he’s able to stand up and make his way out of the med bay. Desperately wanting a shower after realizing how sticky he feels with the sweat from the mission and the uncomfortable humidity from lying in the med bay under a blanket in his clothes. Grabbing his shower kit, he gives Liam a smile in passing before disappearing into the shower. He’s focused on scrubbing the grime off his body and barely notices when Cora steps in to take the other shower head. They keep their eyes on each other’s heads, giving each other that privacy.

“I heard you did well on your first mission, I suppose we all owe you a little bit of an apology for pushing you away when you were getting better. Sorry Scott.” She says, getting her hair wet in the water.

“Thanks Cora, it’s nice to finally be able to feel like part of the team. I was a little at fault to you know.” He says, wincing slightly as he washes over the back of his neck over the bruise around his overworked implant. 

“Let’s just move forward, as a team.” She say, getting a nod from the man beside her.

It’s actually hard to be in such a vulnerable environment with the woman beside him. It was no secret between his sister and him that he had developed a crush on the biotic as soon as their father had introduced her as his second. He’d been dumbstruck by their wave of longing for the woman’s company as they talked over dinner about so many things. He’s honestly surprised that he didn’t stutter when talking to the woman when they were both naked in the shower right now. But that surprise doesn’t last long as he quickly turns off the shower and grabs his towel. A familiar pooling of blood further south prompting him to dry off facing away from the woman.

“You coming to Gil’s poker game after dinner?” She asks, oblivious to the embarrassment radiating from the man beside her.

“Y-yeah, I’ll try.” He says, immediately kicking himself for stuttering.

“See you there then.” She says as he shuffles quickly out of the shower with a firm hand on the front of his towel.

He makes it back to his room and takes care of his situation before redressing in a clean black and gray accented uniform. It’s in his room that he finds a few data pads with alerts blinking. Furling his brow, he starts to read the message notification on the first one in the stack and sighs immediately. 

_Welcome to the team little brother, now that you’re on missions you also get to submit report to Tann._

Scott groans and sits at his makeshift desk to start filling out the text boxes that applied to him on the stack of data pads. He gets a new appreciation for how many his sister must have to deal with, taking nearly an hour to make his way through the bureaucratic bullshit. He’s submitting and closing the window as a knock comes on his door. He just has to nod and wave to articulate to SAM that he’s allow whoever to come in. His sister appears a moment after, snorting as she catches onto what he was doing before she got there.

“Yeah, welcome to the bullshit.” She says, slumping on his couch with a sigh.

“I would offer to help you, but you could offer to cut a hole right here so that I could have a window and I still wouldn’t want to do more than necessary.” He says, earning a long dramatic sigh from his sister as she puts a hand over her heart.

“I’m so disappointed, my own brother throwing me to the wolves, what would mom say?” She gasps, getting a snickers from her twin.

“She would agree with me, don’t you remember how covered her desk was with forms she had to fill out to do her research. She had to fill out that form once just so that she could fill out another form. She would champion my resistance.” Scott says, scratching his encroaching stubble as she nodded in acceptance.

“I do remember that, she threw one of her data pads at the wall. I think dad was scared of her for like a week because he had never seen her that mad before. Well, how are you doing, worried us a little when the Angara were leading your delirious ass back to the Tempest.” She says, smirking in a way that told him she probably had videos of said incident to blackmail him with later.

“I overdid it a little, and I haven’t used my biotics since we went into cryo. I’ll regulate it better in the future, regardless I enjoyed being a part of the mission.” He said, his body suddenly remembering said overwhelming effort as the fatigue fell on his shoulders.

He moves from his crate desk over to lie down on his bed with his arm thrown over his eyes. His sister gives him a worried look, but he waves it off with a reassuring smile. 

“Well, I should let you get some rest, I’ll wake you up for dinner.” She says, helping him grab one of his lighter blankets at his feet.

She helps him take off his prosthetics and set them off to the side so that he’ll sleep more comfortably. Signaling SAM to turn down his lights, she takes her leave as he slips off into sleep.

_“Hey, stop touching it you little stinker.” His mother chastises as his hand raises once against to the bandaged implant site on the back of his neck._

_He’s six when he gets the implant his mother had spent her life working on for human biotics like him. Now his mother got to personally take a break from her research to supervise her sedative addled son as he recovered at home for the next week or so while his body got used to having an actual control in place for his often chaotic biotic powers. _

_“But it itches.” Scott whines from his position snuggled in a blanket in her lap as she works at her desk finalizing some report._

_“I know sweetie, but you can’t mess with it or it’ll start hurting more.” She says, rubbing his back over the blanket as she finishes up sending out an email before clicking over to another window as a video request came in from her husband._

_Smiling, she lifts her boy up a little in her lap, “You wanna talk to dada with me buddy?”_

_“Dada?” He asks, perking up immediately as he looks at the screen in confusion before she clicks the accept tab._

_It only take a few moments before her husband’s tired face appears on the screen. He had offered to let their other little trouble maker Sara tag along with him at work this week so Scott wouldn’t be upset that he had to nap more than her and couldn’t play some of their games because it would exert him too much or endanger his healing neck. Said little girl could be heard playing in the background with one of her father’s coworkers as they took their lunch break for the day._

_“Hey kiddo, shouldn’t you be napping?” His father asks, giving a smile to his wife as well._

_“No, I’m not tired.” Scott pouts, getting a shake of his wife’s head for aggravating the medicated boy._

_“Shush Scotty, how’s Sara?” Ellen asks, rocking the pouting boy back into submission, his eyelids starting to droop at the familiar calming technique that had been used since the twins were energetic newborns._

_“As active as ever, I feel like we should pay the sitter more for handling both of them so well.” Alec admits, turning around to remind the little girl to place nice as she started becoming a little too demanding._

_“To be fair they often tire each other out when they’re together, so I think separating them make this stuff worse.” She whispers, kissing the boys head as he snuggles into her chest._

_“I can see that now, but I think we should keep it up until the weeks up so Scott can rest. He’s obviously benefiting from it.” The man points out, lowering his voice as well, smiling as he watches his son slip off into sleep cuddling close to his mother._

Scott wakes up to an outside force shaking his shoulder and he groans against it because of how nice of a dream he had been having. Being able to be in his mother’s arms again when they were all still such a happy family. Cracking open his eyes, he glares at his sister as she gives him an unimpressed look before flicking him in the chest. He yelps and tries to bat at her to no avail.

“Dinner time you lump, let’s go.” She says, handing him his prosthetics.

Grunting he puts them on before following her to the Galley. The entire crew is shoved into the tight space and his sister end up getting the last seat at the table making him have to stand by the counter with Drack and Liam to eat his meal. They banter back and forth a little before retreating to the cargo bay to set up for the poker game Gil wants to take them all through. Lexi and Jaal separate from them to keep the Moshae company as they’ll get to Aya within a day or so depending on the scourge. Kallo and Suvi go back to the bridge and Drack really just sits off to the side to watch them. He’s already feeling tired again, knowing that it takes more than one nap for his body to catch up after exerting himself too much. But he’s lured in by his sister’s ribbing and Cora inviting him to sit next to her at the table. Curse his sibling rivalry and romantic wants.

They make it through a few rounds before most of the other crew members leave for fear of losing all their money to Gil. He’s basically nodding off at this point with how tired he is, but the two woman keep egging him on to continue and stay with them. By the time Gil starts to deal for the last round of the night his head is on the table as he blindly moves his chips forward into the pile with Cora’s help. He’s so close to falling asleep when Gil slams down his cards that he almost thinks he’s dreaming when the engineer mutters that he won the end of game jackpot. Someone pats him on the back, but he’s already half asleep.

“Cora will you help me?” Sara asks, grabbing one of his arms while the biotic grabs under his other.

“I won?” He asks, sounding like he’s more drunk than sleepy.

Cora laughs under her breath, “Yeah you won,” He’s asleep before his head hits the pillow.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, there's much more to come. Kudos and Comments appreciated.


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